Ing. David Motl. C-Munipack 1.1. User s manual

Transcription

1 Ing. David Motl C-Munipack 1.1 User s manual

2 Copyright c 2007 Ing. David Motl Translation David Motl, Jitka Kudrnáčová and Petr Lut cha Version 1.7, January 20, 2007 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

3 Introduction At the begining of the 21st century, astronomical photometry has changed a lot. Instead of visual and photoelectric observation, the observers began to use CCD cameras. The CCD cameras became cheaper and therefore more affordable even for amateur astronomers. This gave rise to the demand for software tool for processing the CCD-data, which would be available for the amateur astronomer, user-friendly, but also using reliable algorithms. In April 2003 the C-Munipack Project was started; its goal was to supply astronomers with powerful but also user-friendly tool for processing their CCD-data. At the time, two similar tools existed: MuniDOS, a text-mode program, which is somewhat limited by the user interface. Additionaly, according to the authors, the program is not using modern algorithms, and no future development is planned. The other available was Munipack, written partly in Fortran and partly in C. Munipack is modern and still maintained, but there were several disadvantages: the users of the Windows operating system would have severe problems with its compilation, and the graphical interface, that program offers, is available only for unix-based operating systems. Of course, there are some commercial products avaiable on the market, some of them are really good, but these products are not affordable for amateur astronomers, since they have to pay for everything by themselves. I would like to thank to all my colleagues, who contributed with their ideas, advice, and suggestions, to this program. Namely to Filip Hroch for sharing the Munipack source code, and for helping with porting it from Fortran to C, to Lukáš Král for sharing his Varfind source code, to Miloslav Zejda, Ondřej Pejcha and Petr Svoboda for helping with testing and valuable suggestions to the user interface and to Jitka Kudrnáčová and Petr Lut cha for help with english version of the documentation. Brno, May 2006 Author

8 1 Basic informations The C-Munipack software package, described in this manual, is the huge software package, which offers the complete solution for reduction of images carried out by CCD camera, oriented at an observation of variable stars. The specific programs of reduction process can be called from command line or via intuitive graphical user interface. For developers a dynamic-link library with powerfull interface is available. The project is based on the previous Munipack package, the programs have the same name, but contrary to Munipack, it is coded in C language and it contains a several new functions and tools in addition. Assignment of the command-line parameters and configuration files is similar in both projects, exceptions are described in the project documentation. Graphical user interface should be familiar for Munidos users, but it takes full advantage of graphical environment, and therefore the interface is more comfortable and enables user an improved control over reduction process in comparison with original interface of Munidos. Project s WWW pages and FTP archive The latest version of the C-Munipack s binaries, source codes and documentations are available on the internet web pages and also on the anonymous FTP server: ftp://integral.sci.muni.cz/pub/cmunipack/ On authors The project manager David Motl is also the author of the most part of the source codes. Some small pieces of the sources originate from Munipack package, coded by Filip Hroch. Algorithms for aperture photometry originate from Daophot software by P. B. Stetson. Munifind algorithm originates from Varfind tool coded by Lukáš Král. The package uses the FITSIO library (Dr. William Pence, NASA), the FreeImage library maintained by Hervé Drolon and the James Clark s EXPAT library. See References section for further details. Software license This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. Documentation license Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

9 2 The Muniwin program The Muniwin program is the graphical user interface, which presents system for CCD frames reduction, starts with source files conversion into the image format with computation of light-curve of the selected stars. 2.1 Basic processing of the observation The following procedure is the basic procedure for processing the observation of the short-periodic variable stars. From the internet pages of this project, the package with demo data can be dowloaded; this set of data can be used for testing this procedure. Unpack the dowloaded archive to any empty folder at your hard disk. 1. Launch the Muniwin program click on the Start button, select Programs folder and in the Muniwin folder click on the Muniwin icon. 2. From the Files menu choose Clear files. You will be asked for confirmation, press the Yes button. The table of files in the window Input files should be now clear. 3. From the Files menu choose option Add files. With this dialog the images are inserted into the table of the input files. In the left window find the folder containing the data (the demo data are stored in thedata subfolder). If you want to add all the files from the folder, push the All button. If you don t want to, mark the desired files in the table using a mouse. You can also use the dialog for choosing the files based on their properties; this dialog is opened by clicking at the Select button.

10 6 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM 4. Push the Add button. If you want to process data taken in several nights at once, use the same procedure to add those files to the table. After insering all the files you want to process, close the dialog by pushing the Close button. 5. Now do the conversion of the input data into the FITS file format and save the data to the temporary files folder. This step must be done, even when the input data are stored in the FITS file format (the program will just copy the files into the temporary folder). From the Files menu choose the Fetch/convert files option and in the dialog press the OK button. 6. During the conversion a new window will be opened, in which the state of the process is displayed; all the information is also presented there. This window will be automatically closed after finishing the process. Wait for the conversion of all the files to finish. After finishing, the icon in the file table will be changed; the information about the time of observation, the length of the exposition and the used filter will be added. In case, some of the files could not be converted, the file will be marked with a special icon and in the Result column the error message will be reported. 7. In the next step make all the necessary corrections of the images. The demo data needs only flat field correction, because the rest of the corrections was done automatically during the

11 2.1. BASIC PROCESSING OF THE OBSERVATION 7 observation. From the Corrections menu choose the Flat field option. Search and mark the file containing a flat field correction image (in the demo data use the flat20v.st7 file from the subfolderflat) and close the dialog by pressing the OK button. 8. After all necessary corrections comes the photometry of the images, e.g. finding the stars and determining their brightness. From the Photometry menu choose the Photometry option and in the dialog press the OK button. After finishing the processing of the images, the number of the stars found on each of the images will be written to the file table. 9. Now shall be done the composition of the photometric files made in the previous step, e.g. finding the corresponding stars on all the files using one chosen image. From the Matching menu choose the Match stars option. In the dialog click on the option Reference frame and mark the image you want to use as the reference one and confirm your choice by pushing the OK button.

12 8 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM If using the demo data, choose thetmp00006.srt image. The best image is usually the one with the most stars on it and in the preview, displayed in the right-bottom corner of the dialog, this image should not be visibly damaged. 10. The last part of the reduction is matching of the light curve in the Plotting menu click on Choose stars. In the dialog window the reference image will be displayed. The star nearest to the cursor of the mouse is marked with a cross. On the image click on the measured (variable) star and a comparison star respectively, you can also add several control stars. If using the demo data, use the stars according to the following picture: 11. Confirm your choice by clicking on the OK button. The program will compute the brightness of the chosen stars and displays the light curve a graph of the relative brightness of the variable star according to the comparison star in depence of the time measured in the shortened Julian date (JD )

13 2.1. BASIC PROCESSING OF THE OBSERVATION Press the Save data button. Locate the folder where you want to save the data file with the results and set the name of the output file. Close the dialog by clicking on the Close button. The output file contains on the first two lines the heading, then the table containing data. Each image corresponds to one row in the table, in the first column is full Julian date, the second one contains the relative brightness of the variable star in comparison to the comparison star and the third one contains the error of the brightness. In the following columns are saved the brightness and the errors of the comparison star and the control stars (for more detailed description see the documentation of the Munilist program). JD V-C s1 V-C1 s2 V-C2 s3 C-C1 s4 C-C2 s5 C1-C2 s6 Aperture: 1, Filter: Clear, JD: geocentric

14 10 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM 2.2 The application s main window After the initialisation of the program, the application s main window opens. The main window consists of the menu bar, the tool bar for quick access to frequently used functions and table of input files. The program saves its present state to the project file located in the temporary folder, so the last state is automatically restored after initialisation phase The table of input files The table of input files is displayed in the program s main window. In the first step of the reduction process, the source image files are inserted to this table. Those files can be located in different directories so you can process the images observed in different nights without necessity of copying them into one folder. Each row in the table contains many attributes, except source file name, e.g. current state indicator, temporary file name, photometry file name, result of last operation, etc. This attributes are actualized after each step during reduction process. Context menu, which is open by click on right mouse button within the table, consists of many useful features, which allows to modify the appearance of the table. The list can be set to one of three modes: The Table mode In this mode, the content of the table is presented in simple table form. The small icon in the first column indicates the process state or the error generated in the last procedure respectively. More further informations about a frame is displayed in the Properties dialog the right mouse button click on any row, select the Properties in the pop-up menu. By selecting the other items in this menu, you can open the selected frame as an image or an chart in full resolution. At the bottom of the window the status bar is placed showing the full path and name of the source file corresponding to the selected frame. To display nonstandard columns (i.e. date and time of observation in julian date mode, temperate etc.), click on the right mouse button, open the Data shown item. The dialog window opens. Check on / off the columns you want to display / hide and confirm the dialog by the OK button. The Previews mode In this mode, the small input file previews are shown in the window. After one step of the reduction process is finished, the previews are automatically actualised showing the result of the last step. Similarly as in many other dialogs, you can modify the previews properties: Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering.

15 2.2. THE APPLICATION S MAIN WINDOW 11 The Slideshow mode In this mode, the image or photometry file (chart) in full resolution is rendered on the window. After one step of the reduction process is finished, the image is automatically actualised showing the result of the last step. Use the arrows in the window to move to the first, previous, next or last frame in the table respectively. You can also move to any frame by selecting it in the selection filed (up right). Similarly as in many other dialogs, you can modify the properties of the preview: Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering Preview window The preview window allows user to further inspect the content of a CCD frame or a result of reduction process. The dialog window is open by double-click on one of the files in the table of the input files. On the basis on the current state of the reduction process, it is automatically decided, whether an original frame, a temporary frame or a photometry file shall be displayed. The preview window can be open also from the context menu (Open item) in this case, it allows user to choose, which style of preview shall be displayed, by selecting corresponding item in the submenu. Click the Close button to close the dialog. It is possible to export a frame to a file in the JPEG, PNG, TIFF or BMP format (the Export button). The Print feature is also supplied.

16 12 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM Displaying the CCD frame The information is arranged in the three pages, which are switched by tabs on the upper part of the dialog. The CCD image is presented on the first page. The second page consists of brief information about the frame. Complete listing of all items from the header is displayed on the third page. The controls located on the right panel of the dialog are intended for setting the preview options: Zoom this section sets the magnification of the image. You can either select one item in the combo box or check the Fit to window field. In the latter case, the zoom is automatically adjusted to fit the window size. Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering. Show bad pixels check this option on to highlite overexposed or bad pixels on the frame. The pixels, whose value is equal to maximum (65535 by default), equal to zero or even negative, are dyed in red color. Pseudocolors switches grayscale and pseudocolor display rendering. This function is useful for checking uniformity of the sky level after flat-frame correction. Show scale check on to display the scale of the pixel values. The lables shows values in ADU corresponding to intensity or color hue. Show apertures check this option to display the default aperture and the sky annulus. The default aperture is displayed in form of a circle drawn by a solid pen, two dashed circles shows the annulus used for computing a value of local sky brightness. The preview dialog allows to find out the basic photometric attributes of a star on the CCD frame before the photometry reduction phase is executed. This feature is intended for checking whether a star is not overexposed and it allows to determine the approximate value of the FWHM value (Full Width at Half Maximum). The computation is initiated by single click on left mouse button within the image. The highest peak is found in the vicinity to position, where the user has clicked on. Then, the simplified photometry calculation is performed. The results are print out to the information panel in the bottom right part of the dialog. Center(x), Center(y) centroid s position (center of the star) in pixels with respect to upper left corner of the image.

17 2.2. THE APPLICATION S MAIN WINDOW 13 Max pixel value in the local maxima in ADU Sky val. local mean value of sky level in ADU, computed by means of median algorithm. Std. dev. standard deviation of sky level in ADU. FWHM(x), FWHM(y), FWHM half width of the profile in horizontal direction, in vertical direction and average of the previous two values respectively. SNR ratio of the integral signal of the star to std. deviation of the sky level, expressed in magnitudes (the SNR value equal to -2.5 mag. means, that the signal of the star is 100 times greater then noise of its background). Displaying the photometry file The information is arranged in two pages, which are switched by the tabs on the upper part of the dialog. The chart is displayed on the first page. The diameters of circles correspond to the magnitudes of stars. Stars, which could not be measured, are painted in red color. The second page consists of complete listing of all items from the header. By single click on a star, the further data is displayed in the information panel, which is located in the bottom right part of the dialog window. The selected star is highlited by yellow color and labeled by its ordinal number. You can also change the index of aperture used by means of the Aperture control.

18 14 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM 2.3 The Files menu Clear files This function deletes all items stored in the Input files table and cleans the directory with temporary files (Files menu). It does not remove the source files from the disk. If you want to remove any selected files from the table, use the Remove files function instead Add files Opens a dialog for files insertion into the table of input files. It is always used at the beginning of reduction process or prior the start of Process new files tool. This dialog is a standard way how to add files into the project. The Drag & Drop function and/or Copy & Paste can be used alternatively. The Add files dialog Choose the Add Files item from the Files menu. The dialog window appears. Find the directory and select the files you want to add to the project. Press the Add button. The dialog remains open, so you can include the files from another folder, simply by changing the directory and repeat the addition. Duplicities are automatically ignored. The Close button closes the dialog. For selection of large number of files, use the standard way with Ctrl orshift keys or click on function buttons in the right panel: All select all files in the current folder Invert inverts the selection of files Select allows selection of the files based on their properties (date and time of observation, filter and file name) Selecting file (containing the CCD image in supported format) from the list, an image preview with a brief information is shown at the left bottom of the dialog window. Double-click on preview opens a dialog with full resolution image. The preview features can be modified by selecting the check boxes: Preview turns the preview display on and off. It s a good idea to turn off the preview on slow computers.

19 2.3. THE FILES MENU 15 Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering. The Drag & Drop function From the Windows menu, open the Show Input files window. Using Windows explorer (This computer) find the folder, where the source files are located. Mark the files you want to process, press and hold the left mouse button. Drag the files onto Muniwin icon on system bar. Wait till the program switches to foreground, then move the mouse to the Input files window and release the mouse button. By the similar way, you can drag and drop files from any other file manager. The Copy & Paste function From the Windows menu, open the Show Input files window. Using Windows explorer (This computer) find the folder, where the source files are located. Mark the files, you want to reduce, and press the right mouse button. In the context menu, select the Copy item. Switch back to Muniwin program, and in the Input files window press the right button again. In the context menu, select the Paste from clipboard item. By the similar way, you can drag and drop files from any other file manager Remove files This function removes selected rows from the table of the source files (Input Files window). If the window is switched to Slideshow mode, it will remove currently displayed file only. The function removes the links from the file table only, it does not removes the source files physically. If you want to remove all files in the table, use rather Clear files function instead Fetch/Convert files This function starts the reduction of CCD observation. It is always executed after the source files are inserted into the Input files table. The program read and check the source files, perform conversion to a working format (if needed) and store them into the temporary file folder. All the following functions and tools always process those temporary files. Click on the Fetch/convert files in the Files menu. Simple dialog window opens with one option only whether you want to fetch all files in the table or the selected ones only. Click on OK button to start the conversion process. Note, that you also have to use this function at the beginning of conversion process, if the source files are already stored in FITS format.

20 16 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM Open file The function is not intended for reduction process purpose. This additional function only assists to displaying the content of any file. The file must contain CCD frame, photometry file, catalogue file or text table in one of supported formats (see the section 5). Select the Open file in the Files menu to open dialog window. Specify the directory and select the file, which you want to open. Click on Open to confirm the selection. The program automatically detects the file format and opens appropriate preview window. Use the Close button to close the preview window Exit Click on Exit in Files menu to close the program. 2.4 The Corrections menu Time correction The time correction modifies the date and time of observations by adding or subtracting a specified time interval. The correction can be used repeatedly on one file, since the function is cumulative, so the intervals are sumarised. For example, if you add 60 seconds and then add 40 seconds, the resulting observation time will be shifted by 100 seconds. Click on the Time correction in the Corrections menu to open dialog window. Select the options to choose the way how to enter the time interval. You can enter either the exact value in seconds or days or enter interval by specifying two dates. In this case the program will compute the difference between the dates and modifies the observations times by appropriate number of seconds. If you want to modify several source files only, select the files in the Input files table, and in the dialog check Modify selected files only option. You can repeat this procedure to set proper times of observations for all source files Dark correction This function subtract the dark frame from source files. The dark frame is carried out by camera when the aperture is closed. Instead of using the automatic autodark function of your CCD camera, it is better to provide five to ten dark frames at the end of observation when the camera s chip is uniformly cooled. Then, use the Master-dark function to make one composed frame to be used for correction. This substantially supresses the noise. The correction frame shall be saved in one of supported image formats, the program automatically ensures the conversion if neccessary. Click on the Dark correction in the Correction menu to open a dialog window. Select the path where the dark frame file is located. Press the OK button.

21 2.4. THE CORRECTIONS MENU 17 You always should use an individual dark frame for each observation series taken from several nights. Perform the correction step by step. In the table of input files, select the frames taken in one night, open correction dialog, check the Modify selected files only option, select the corresponding dark frame and start the correction. Repeat the steps for each frame series. Selecting file (containing the CCD image in supported format) from the list, an image preview with a brief information is shown at the left bottom of the dialog window. The preview features can be modified by selecting the check boxes: Preview turns the preview display on and off. It s a good idea to turn off the preview on slow computers. Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering Flat correction This correction always follows the dark frame correction. The flat frame is carried out when the camera is pointed to uniformly illuminated background. It eliminates variable gain of camera s chip CCD elements and also the optical system unbalanced sensitivity. To reduce the noise and increase the quality of photometry, you can combine a sequence of flat frames to obtain a Master-flat frame. The separate correction frame has to be used for each filter. Avoid eventual camera rotation on its mount. The correction frame must be saved in one of supported image formats, the program automatically ensures the conversion if neccessary. Click on the Flat correction in the Corrections menu. The dialog windows appears. Find the directory and select the file with the flat frame. Press the OK button. If you are procesing data carried out from several observations, then you will need an individual correction frame for each observation. In this case, perfomm the correction step by step. In the table of input files, select the frames, open correction dialog, check the Modify selected files only only option, select the corresponding flat frame and start the correction. Repeat the steps for each series of frames. Selecting file (containing the CCD image in supported format) from the list, an image preview with a brief information is shown at the left bottom of the dialog window. The preview features can be modified by selecting the check boxes:

22 18 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM Preview turns the preview display on and off. It s a good idea to turn off the preview on slow computers. Autocontrast check on if you want the program to compute automatically the brightness and contrast of displayed image. Uncheck the box if you want to use the values stored in the file header. Invert switches positive and negative display rendering. 2.5 The Photometry menu Photometry The function performs the aperture photometry of the input frames. All neccessary corrections have to be done prior the start. The results of photometry photometry files are stored in the folder for temporary files with srt extension. The file contains the data of position and brightness of each star on the source frame. Select Photometry in the Photometry menu to open dialog window containing the option whether to process all files in the table or the selected ones only. Click on the OK button to start the process. During processing, information messages are shown in the special dialog window. Finally the program actualizes the table of input files and inserts data to column Stars the number of stars found on each input frame. If you want to apply the photometry only to a subset of input files (for example after the changing of photometry parameters), select the files in the Input files table, open the photometry dialog, check the Modify selected files only option. Confirm by the OK button.

23 2.6. THE MATCHING MENU 19 The photometry of the images, saved in the temporary folder, (they are not changed by photometry) can be reprocessed to achieve better results without any necessity to perform the conversion and correction of the frames again. The program readilly allows to show the results of photometry: Select the file in the table and press right mouse button. In the pop-up menu choose Open photometry file. The new window with an image is displayed. White circles on the blue background represent stars in the photometry file. The diameter of circles matches the magnitude of found stars. The red-color circles correspond to stars which have been incorrectly detected (the relevant value of magnitude is greater than 99.0 mag). 2.6 The Matching menu Match stars The matching of stars finds the cross-references between the stars in the source file and the reference file. The result of the function is also photometry file, which contains the stars from the source file, but they are sorted in the order of the stars in the reference file. The reference file is in most cases one frame chosen from the serie of the input frames. The catalogue file can be also used instead it is special photometry file, which contains the position of the stars and also the selection of variable and comparison stars. Open the Matching menu and select the Match stars item. In the dialog window, choose the reference file (select reference file option) or catalogue file (select catalogue file option). Confirm the dialog by the OK button. In most cases, the best reference file has greatest number of stars detected and in the preview and there are no defects visible. As well as in other dialogs, the preview of the selected file is displayed in the right bottom. As soon as the process finishes the informations in the Input files window are updated. The data in the Stars column is changed, and they show the fraction of x/y, where x is the number of successfully matched stars and the letter y stands for the total number of stars in the source photometry file. For the matching procedure does not affect the source photometry files, it can be repeated more times to get best results without need to repeat the photometry.

24 20 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM 2.7 The Plotting menu Choose stars This function performs the final step of reduction process. It finalizes the selected variable star light curve related to the comparison and check stars. In the dialog, the user selects the variable, comparison and/or check stars on the reference frame. Open the Plotting menu and select the Choose stars item. The maximized dialog window appears showing the reference frame or the chart from catalogue files respectively. Sequentially, click on the variable star (small red circle mark with the label var), then click on comparison star (green color circle with comp label) and optionally you can select several check stars (chk1, chk2, etc.). If the catalogue file with the matching stars is used, the stars will be automatically selected user checks the selection only. If the output format is set to instrumental magnitudes, the selection is similar, but the stars are labeled s1, s2,... If you want to enter new selection, click on the Clear button and select the stars again. The Reset button resets back the selection to the state stored in the catalogue file. If you want to find a star by its number (position in the file), press the Show button and enter the index of the star. Press and hold the right mouse button to hide the labels on the chart. Confirm the selection by OK button. The table of brightness is computed and the light curve graph is displayed in the separate dialog window (see Plot Curve section). The Stars button turns on and off the small circles, which mark up the positions of all stars from the reference file. The yellow and red cirles indicates the good and the invalid values of magnitude respectively Enter object s coordinates This item is shown in the menu only if the object s coordinates are needed in the reduction process (computation of heliocentric correction or air-mass coefficient). The position can be entered by two ways: manually or selecting from the catalogue. The first method is applicable, when you know the equatorial coordinates of the observed object. The second method is helpful to variable stars observers, because the program can seek through a number of popular catalogues of variable stars and find records by star s designation or its part. Because the catalogues are not included in the binary installation, it is neccessary to set up the path to the files in the Preferencies dialog (Catalogues page).

25 2.7. THE PLOTTING MENU 21 Manual entering of coordinates In the Plotting menu, click on the Enter object s coordinates item. New dialog window is open. In its upper section, select Enter R.A. and Dec. manually option and enter the right ascension and the declination to appripriate edit fields. Examples: , ; , or , You can also fill the object s designation, this value will be used on printed charts and graphs. Close the dialog by OK button. Reading coordinates from the catalogues In the Plotting menu, click on the Enter object s coordinates item. New dialog window is open. Unlike the previous case, select Search star catalogues option and fill the variable star s designation or its part to the Search field. You had to enter at least three characters, upper and lower case is ignored as well as extra or missing spaces and other common delimiters. Press Enter button to start the searching. The results are presented in the table, which contains all matched records. In the first column, the precise designation is displayed and followed by the right ascension and declination, name of catalogue. Additional information are shown in the last column, in most cases it contains other possible designations of the variable star. Go through the table and click on the row which you regard as best. It is possible also to change the search string and repeat the searching. Confirm the selection by OK button Plot curve The data file contains the reduction process output. Select the Plot Curve item in the Plotting menu in the to open a dialog window, where a graph of the last generated light curve is displayed. Using the control buttons on the panel, the data can be saved in text or image format or printed on the printer.

26 22 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM The ouput data file contains not only the brightness of the variable star with respect to the comparison star and all check stars, but also the relative brightness of the comparison star with respect to check stars and all other combinations. These values are used to check, whether the comparison star is not variable, too. A table with a list of available data in file occurrs in the panel bottom part, the first column is displayed by default. To view another light curve select the appropriate row in the table. The Show errors option allows to switch on / off displaying the error lines. The final processed files containing data of light curve shall be saved properly either to source files folder or to user specified one. In the dialog window, press Save data button and specify a directory and filename, confirm by the Save button. The output files are saved into the results subdirectory in the application directory, by default. The path can be changed in the preferencies menu. This folder is accessible directly from the user interface (see the section 2.9.2). In the light curve graph it is possible to display further information click on the curve point by left mouse button. The selected point is marked by yellow circle and the detailed information are displayed at the panel right bottom part. To print the graph on the printer, click on the Print graph to open a preview window. The Print button causes to open a standard print dialog. Confirm by the OK button. You can also save the graph as JPEG, PNG, TIFF or BMP image to the file by selecting the Save image button View chart This dialog window shows the chart of last used selection of the stars. On the window background, the reference frame or the catalogue file is displayed, and the stars are coloured and labeled by the same way as in the Choose stars dialog. You can save the chart to JPEG, PNG, TIFF or BMP image or print on the printer. Also the new catalogue file can be created from this dialog. In the Plotting menu select the View chart to open dialog window. If you want to save the chart into the image file, click on the Save image button and in the standardised save dialog specify a directory and enter the file name. Confirm by the Save button. The charts are saved in the same directory as ouput data files (see the section 2.9.2), by default. This files are accessible in the Results dialog. If you want to print the chart on the printer, press the Print chart button. The preview window appears. In the window, press Print button, which opens a standard print dialog. Confirm by the OK button.

27 2.8. THE TOOLS MENU The Tools menu Master-dark The Master-dark tool compose a set of dark frames and performs one dark frame called masterdark. Applying this function, you can achieve a high quality correction frame to reduce the noise. It is recommened to provide dark frames on the end of observation, when the camera is enough uniformly cooled. The source frames must be saved in one of supported image formats, the program automatically ensures the conversion if neccessary. The output file is always in FITS format. Add the source dark frames to the table of input files and proceed their conversion. Open the Tools menu and click on the Master-dark item. In the dialog window specify whether all files shall be processed or only the selected ones. Confirm by the OK button. In the following dialog select a directory and enter the name of output file to be saved. Press the Save button Master-flat The Master-flat tool reads a set of flat fields, normalizes them to the set up level of brightness (10000 by default). Then, applying the robust median algorith to corresponding pixels on source frames, the one flat field called master-flat is composed. With help of this function, you can achieve high quality correction frame to reduce the noise. The separate correction frame has to be used for each filter, if the color fliters were used. Avoid eventual camera rotation on its mount. The source frames must be saved in one of supported image formats, the program automatically ensures the conversion if neccessary. The output file is always in FITS format. Add the source flat frames to the table of input files and proceed their conversion, apply the Dark correction also. Open the Tools menu and click on the Master-flat. In the dialog window specify whether all files shall be processed or only the selected ones. Confirm by the OK button. In the following dialog select a directory and enter the name of output file to be saved. Press the Save button Find variables The CCD observation allows to measure brightness of all stars occuring in the field of the telescope. It may happen, that on a series of frames that appart from observed star there occures also another variable star. By the following steps, you can perhaps discover a new variable star. The Find variables dialog is the useful tool that provides semi-automatic scaning of variable stars in the series of source files. It is based on the relation between the standard deviations of the brightness of the stars and their mean brightness. The program reads all photometry files and compute the mean

28 24 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM brightness and standard deviations of brightness of all stars. The algorithm automatically removes stars that are missing on majority of source frames. For the star of lower magnitude the deviation of brightness exhibits higher value than deviation for stars with a higher brightness. First follow all steps of observed frames reduction through processing the photometry files. In the Tools menu select the Find variables. The program computes all stars brightness data at all frames and selects one comparison star. The dialog window opens. At top left area a graph of mag vs. stdev is shown. On the right part the identification chart with variable star marked up is presented. Also the selected star light-curve graph is shown. Click at any point of the graph left. The program marks the point with red circle with the var label. The same way, the corresponding star is marked up on the identification chart. In the bottom part of the dialog window, the light-curve graph of the star is plotted. Sequentially indicate all stars, you suspect to be a variable star. The comparison star is marked with green circle with the comp label. Although the comparison star is automatically selected, the selection does not need be ideal. To change the comparison star manually, click on Comp button on the control panel and select the star on the identification chart. When done, click on the Var button to switch back to variable selection mode. By the help of the buttons on the panel, the graph, chart or the light-curve can be saved as data or image file or can be sent to the printer Plot track list The track-list graph shows the relation between the stars shift on the frames against their positions on the reference file. It may be used for computing the telescope mounting periodic error. In the Tools menu, click on Plot track list to open dialog window. The julian date is on the horizontal axis of the graph and the offsets in pixels are on the vertical axis. The list of available data in a file is dispalyed in the panel middle part. The data file consists two contextual columns: OFFSETX offset in horizontal direction, positive values mean the shift to the right, negative to the left. OFFSETY offset in vertical direction, positive values mean the shift to the bottom, negative to the top. In the dialog, press the Save data and specify a directory, where the file is to be saved. Confirm by the Save button. The output files are saved into the results subdirectory in the application directory by default, but the path can be changed in the preferencies. This folder is directly accessible in the user interface (see the section 2.9.2).

29 2.8. THE TOOLS MENU 25 In the light curve graph there is possible to display further information click on the curve point by left mouse button. The selected point is marked by yellow circle and the detailed information is shown at the panel right bottom part. To print the graph on the printer, click on the Print graph to open a preview window. Print button causes to open standard print dialog. Confirm by the OK button. You can also save the graph as JPEG, PNG, TIFF or BMP image to the file selecting the Save image button Process new files The tool is designated for short-period variables observation. Using this tool, it is possible to trace the variable behavior during the observation and eventually decide, assisted by the continous light curve, whether to resume or stop the variable scaning. During the first run, process the CCD frames by the standard procedure up to the selection of the stars and produce the light curve. At this moment you can exit the Muniwin program (it always saves the last state). After acquiring a several further frames, start the Muniwin program again, open the Tools menu and select the Process new files item. New dialog window is open. In the dialog, select the second option, and enter the path where the new frames are stored during the observation. In case you are observing a number of variables or you are using several filters, enter the file name mask and/or filter name to the corresponding fields. Confirm the dialog by the Process button. The program detects the new files which meets specified conditions, inserts them to the table of input files and performs the necessary conversion, corrections, photometry, matching and finally plots actualized light curve graph. Similarly you can continue up to the end of observation.

30 26 2. THE MUNIWIN PROGRAM Express reduction This tool offers the simple way how to reduce CCD observation in the batch mode. Using the standard way, the user is to procede step by step manually. This dialog allows you to enter all necessary data in one dialog and then the program performs all required steps in succession. First, enter the source files into the input table by standard way using Add files dialog. Then, open the Tools menu and select the Express reduction item. In the dialog window, check the options to specify whether you want to process all files or the selected ones. If you wish to convert files to temporary folder, check Fetch/convert files. In order to perform the frames time correction, check Do time correction and enter the time period (in seconds) to the editing field. By similar way specify all the steps of reduction process you want to proceed along. Click on the Process button to start the reduction process Make catalogue file In the Tools menu, select the Make catalogue file item. New dialog is open Enter the basic data of the observed object to editing fields. If you share your catalogues with other observers, complete the information about observer and instrument you used. It is only required to enter the star name into the field. Confirm by the OK button. The catalogue file and the reference frame is saved into catalogue folder. It is the cat subdirectory in the application directory, by default, but the path can be changed in the preferences.

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